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Media Release - Minister's Office Sydney: 30 June 2008 EAST HILLS RAIL UPGRADE GETS GREEN LIGHT Planning Minister Frank Sartor has approved a $450 million project to double the number of tracks within the rail corridor of the East Hills line, between Kingsgrove to Revesby, to ease congestion on the existing rail line.
Mr Sartor said the project will see the construction of two new tracks, each more than 7km in length, alongside existing tracks.
“The NSW Government believes the current rail system servicing the growing south west metropolitan Sydney region needs a serious upgrade to deal with increasing demand,” Mr Sartor said.
“When the project is completed, the express services will run on the new outer lines and local services will use the inner tracks.
“It will improve journey times for express services to the south west and better service patterns on the Airport and East Hills Line.
“The project is good news for employment – generating around 450 construction jobs during peak periods of building activity.
“The East Hills line currently narrows from four tracks east of Kingsgrove to just two tracks west of Kingsgrove.
“This requires local and express services to share the same tracks between Kingsgrove and Revesby which decreases the capacity, efficiency and reliability of the line.”
The upgrade of the East Hills line was identified as a component of Rail Clearways 2010 - a State Government initiative that was developed to improve the reliability and capacity of heavy rail services in the Sydney Metropolitan region.
The project is also required to meet the commitments in the State Government’s Metropolitan Strategy and addresses a key priority of the State Plan by increasing peak hour journeys on a safe and reliable public transport system.
The East Hills Line is an important transport corridor within south-west Sydney, associated with the Campbelltown and Leppington centres, the South West Growth Centre, the M5 Motorway corridor and the City to the Airport/Port Botany corridor.
Approval includes a number of conditions during construction to address noise, traffic and access during the 32 months of construction.
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